The provision of affordable housing in Central Sudan

The concern of this dissertation is to propose a realistic and rational approach by which the rate of housing supply to the low-income people - who constitute the majority of urban population - could be increased to the level that would approach the demand. Three major prevailing constraints are considered in the process: 1. That the gap between the housing cost and level of financial affordability of low-income people is daunting. 2. That the authorities under the current stringent financial conditions could only outlay minimal public funds to housing. 3. That most of the required housing supply should be made by the users themselves. Under such circumstances, it is believed, the objective of an increased low-cost housing supply could be achieved through the following measures: i. Augmenting the financial resources of the people to the level that would allow them to buy, build or rent housing through the provision of long-term low-cost finance, which could be drawn from several sources including the mobilisation of the savings of all income groups. This important facility of finance does not exist at present. ii. Involving the authorities in the process of accelerating the housing supply. Not necessarily by more public spending, but by stretching the use of allocated public funds to serve a wider section of people, by adopting legislative and administrative measures which would aid the people to mobilise their collective resources and improve their technical skills, and by the establishment of realistic standards which would give the people more freedom in providing their dwellings within their available means.iii. Employment of technology to reduce the cost of housing through design, better use of materials and better methods of construction. All these aspects in reality would interact to determine the volume of housing supply. Therefore, in order to attain the maximum possible rate of housing supply they should, essentially, all be considered in working out an approach to the problem. The dissertation as such is presented in four main parts: PART ONE: Reviews the existing housing situation in the Sudan. It also puts forward propositions concerning aspects of FINANCE and ADMINISTRATION which are determinant in accelerating the supply of housing. PART TWO: Explores the means of reducing the cost of housing through design of SPACES, FABRIC and SERVICES. Special emphasis is put on the use of local resources in terms of building materials and expertise in order to achieve more economy. PART THREE: Demonstrates the use of STABILISED SOIL as an example of enhancing existing technology to achieve economies in construction costs. PART FOUR: Explores the utilisation of all available resources including users' manpower to reduce the cost of housing construction as an important measure in tackling the problem. As such, AIDED-SELF-HELP is proposed as a method to be employed in realisation of low-cost housing. Although the measures considered in this approach are applicable to provision of low-cost housing all over the country, the two parts of this dissertation on design and building materials refer mainly to the central urban centres of the Sudan which are shown in figure (1.1)